Sarah Palin Update!

Updated (again) Below:

As I've menioned elsewhere, my ability to predict political outcomes is not great.

However, a few weeks ago I had some thoughts about how I think Sarah Palin's future is likely to play out, and I figured I'd get them down on the record. Essentially, I argued that Palin is trying to use her intense popularity over a small portion of the GOP electorate to carve out a place for herself as a kingmaker in the Republican party. I also argued that despite my previous conviction she has no choice but to seek the presidency in 2012, she is shrewd enough to realize now that throwing her hat into the ring would result in her utter humiliation and therefore is really not a viable option.

Well, via Jed Lewison over at DKos I am directed to this story from ABC News.

Apparently, Palin gave yet another interview to Fox News's Greta VanSusteran (Susteran's husband works for Sarah Palin and her SarahPAC . . . a fact that VanSusteran, to my knowledge, has never seen fit to share with her viewers). During the interview Palin explained

that she's concerned jumping into the 2012 presidential race will muffle her message.

"Is a title worth it?" she asked, rhetorically, "Does a title shackle a person? Are they someone like me who's maverick? I do go rogue and I call it like I see it and I don't mind stirring it up in order to get people to think and debate aggressively.

"Is a title and a campaign to shackle-y?," she continued . . . . "Does a title take away my freedom to call it like I see it and to affect positive change that we need in this country? That's the biggest contemplation piece in my process."

To those of you trying to play along at home, the "title" about which Sarah Palin is so dubious is "President of the United States." The holder of this "title" is often referred to as "the most powerful person in the world."

But apparently Palin feels that actually holding the Oval Office would be too restrictive for her "mavericky-ness." Palin apparently is claiming that her real ability to "affect positive change" is best served by confining herself to bus tours, chatting with her employee's wife on TeeVee, and generally acting as a barely - if that! - coherent gadfly.

Which is fine by me. This woman is not a serious person, and the sooner she marginalizes and removes herself from our daily discourse the better off our country will be.

Update: A few hours after posting this I caught Jon Stewart on The Daily Show and was amused to see that he had the same take on Palin's statements as I had: the ludicrousness of the idea that if she were to somehow become president then Palin would somehow have less power than she gets to exert now riding around on a bus trip to nowhere.